John Kerry fumbles boots-on-the-ground question

“Let me ask you,” Kerry responded to Udall. “Are you going to be comfortable if Assad, as a result of the United States not doing anything, then gasses his people yet again and they — and the world says, why didn’t the United States act?

Meanwhile, several senators tried to press Kerry on the question of how the Obama administration would respond if Congress ultimately did not authorize use of force in Syria.

In his opening remarks, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) on Tuesday stressed the need for Congress to approve military involvement in Syria, saying the world can’t ignore the “inhumanity and horror” of the Assad regime’s alleged use of chemical weapons on his own people.

Menendez said any military action would be “focused” and a congressional authorization of force would include a “clear” ban on U.S. ground troops.

“Yes, there are risks to action,” Menendez said. “But the consequences of inaction are greater and graver still.”

All 18 members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee were present at Tuesday’s hearing called the week before Congress is scheduled to return from recess, underscoring the high stakes of the Syria issue.

Tuesday’s hearing is the first of two committee appearances this week scheduled for Kerry, Hagel and Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. On Wednesday, those three officials will testify before the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Menendez, who took over from Kerry as chairman of the Foreign Relations panel, is working with Senate leaders to rewrite the resolution that would authorize strikes in Syria sent to Congress on Saturday by the White House, which has been roundly criticized by lawmakers as too broad.

Among the options for a Authorization for the Use of Military Force measure is including a 60-day period that would allow President Barack Obama to use “narrow, limited” strikes against the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad. That could also include a 30-day extension for action. Lawmakers are also considering a provision that would bar the use of U.S. ground troops in Syria.

Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker, the top Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee, said Tuesday that a revised resolution could come as early as Tuesday evening or early Wednesday. He and Menendez met privately with Obama at the White House to discuss the forthcoming resolution. During Tuesday’s hearing, Menendez also raised the possibility of a markup on Wednesday.

“There was nothing said in that meeting that calls me to believe we could not come to an authorization that will be acceptable to the administration,” Corker said.

But even with a narrower proposal, it is still far from clear whether Obama will get the approval from Congress on military action in Syria. Several senators attending classified briefings Tuesday on Capitol Hill said they were undecided.

Sen. James Risch (R-Idaho), who sits on the Foreign Relations Committee, said he was “extremely reluctant” on the issue of military involvement in Syria.

“I still keep hearing that the objective is: ‘Well, we have to do something,’” Risch told reporters Tuesday. “That’s not good enough for me at this point.”

Still, Obama said earlier Tuesday that he was confident Congress will ultimately authorize the strikes against the Assad regime, which is accused of perpetrating a chemical weapons attack that killed more than 1,400 Syrians, including 426 children.

“This is not Iraq and this is not Afghanistan,” Obama said Tuesday. “This is a limited, proportional step that will send a clear message not only to the Assad regime but also to other countries that may be interested in testing some of these international norms, that there are consequences.”